Bavarian Man Admits 34 Alphabay Orders in Court

At a court in Regensburg, Bavaria, a 20-year-old fraudster confused the court with continued confessions of crimes previously unknown to the prosecution. The young man had ordered both drugs and counterfeit currency from Alphabay vendorsâinformation the defendant had revealed to investigators after an arrest for incitement to counterfeit money. No new charges can come from his confusing admissions of guilt. The sporadic outbursts did, however, result in a sentence of only probation and a mental health evaluation.

The case began in March 2017. At that time, though, the police had no idea they had walked into a darknet case. The defendant’s friend had been shopping at a hardware store in Regensburg and had forgotten his money. The defendant gave his friend a counterfeit euro. The shop owner recognized the fake euro note and called the police. The shop owner detained both the defendant and his friend until the police arrived.

The police discovered another fake euro note in the primary defendant’s pocket, the prosecution revealed. The police then searched the defendant’s apartment after securing a search warrant with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. At his apartment, the police found less than 20 grams of hashish; 22 grams of marijuana; almost one pound of cocaine; one gram of MDMA; three ecstasy pills; several items related to drug use or production; a gas pistol; and a laptop. They seized the drugs and allowed the then 19-year-old to bring the laptop to the police station where he could show them how to access its contents. According to one officer who served as a witness, the defendant sat down with his laptop, unlocked it, pulled up his Alphabay buyer profile, got up, and walked out of the police station without even acknowledging the presence of police. They were stunned.

They said he later returned and offered to help the police âclean up the darknet.â They said he was responsive and communicative. A completely different person than that had seen only days prior. He showed them that he had placed 34 orders on Alphabay for various drugs and several orders for counterfeit euros. He would then become completely withdrawn and unresponsive to the police. They later learned that he had a former history of mental health treatment.

In the courtroom, the 20-year-old, according to one local news outlet, spoke as if he considered his crimes âaccomplishments.â He told the court that he thought very little of police and that the evidence he had hidden during the investigation had only helped reinforce his low expectations for police competency. He said that he had not only ordered the handful of counterfeit euros the police had discovered in his pocket at the hardware store; he had also ordered roughly 1,500 euros worth of fake euros. He said that he had spent them at 34 different businesses in the region. He also said that he had hidden an entire wallet filled with counterfeit euros in the hardware store before the police had arrived.

A mental health expert for the prosecution said the defendant suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. In response, the judge handed down a sentence of one year and six months probation and mandatory completion of a state sponsored therapy program.